DEWATS Evaluation Trip to Nagpur

I had a fairly informative and productive trip to Nagpur on 15th & 16th May along with various Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation officials. We joined a local Center for DEWATS Dissemination (CDD) team to visit various DEWATS (Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems) sites for possible inclusion in the Project Sammaan facilities.

BMC was represented by Ms Sumita Behera (Land Recovery Officer), Mr. Ratindra Narayan Mallick (Executive Engineer) and Mr. Surath Kumar Sahoo (Junior Engineer). Satchit (Regional co-ordinator) and Sekhar (Sr. Engineer) accompanied us from CDD.

As was written in a previous post, DEWATS systems have become popular as they provide affordable on-site treatment of wastewater. Dr. Kulwant Singh, an advisor to UN-HABITAT, elaborated on DEWATS being a technical approach rather than a technology package; its applications are based on principles of low-maintenance since most important parts of the system work without technical energy inputs and cannot be switched off intentionally, and they provide state-of-the-art technology at affordable prices as all of the materials for construction can be locally-sourced. There are 4 basic technical treatments:

  • Primary treatment: sedimentation and floatation

  • Secondary anaerobic treatment in fixed-bed reactors: baffled upstream reactors or anaerobic filters

  • Tertiary aerobic treatment in sub-surface flow filters

  • Tertiary aerobic treatment in polishing ponds

There are limitations with DEWATS, however. In the context of Project Sammaan, the most significant of which is the large area required for treatment. Due to this, the number of sites in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack that can implement these systems will be limited. That said, collectively, the project team felt that the opportunity to apply a further layer of innovation to the facilities was too great to pass up.

Here are the key points of our visit:

Sites Visited and People Met

We covered 2 sites in Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and 1 site each in nearby Municipal Councils. The sites that we visited were:

  • DEWATS plant for community based toilets for Mahajan Nagar Slum in Nagpur

  • DEWATS plant in a vocational training institute in Nagpur

  • DEWATS plant for a public toilet in Katol municipal council

  • DEWATS plant for a slaughter house, fish market and public toilet complex in Umred municipal council

We met the Commissioner of the NMC, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of Public Works and the Chief Engineer of the NMC. All of them are enthusiastic advocates of CDD’s work and advised BMC officials to adopt DEWATS technology wherever possible.  They also explained how they are handling the waste water treatment issues in NMC. Since their peers in the NMC were explaining the benefits, it was impactful and the BMC officials were convinced of the value of DEWATS.

 

Overall Impression by BMC Officials

The BMC officials were very impressed by the technology that CDD has used at various sites and they felt that it has huge potential in Orissa. Mr. Mallick said that the visit really helped him to clarify the apprehensions that they had on the technology. CDD also provided him necessary information on pollution control reports on the recycled water, case studies on implementation and pros and cons of DEWATS technology.

Mr. Mallick has committed to sharing a file internally within the BMC about his observations and proposing to the BMC that DEWATS be implemented in at least a share of the Bhubaneswar sites, depending on the area available and other site specific requirements. Both Ms. Behera and Mr. Sahoo concurred with Mr. Mallick’s views and also said that apart from the Project Sammaan sites, they would also recommend DEWATS for future sites.

Next Steps

  • CDD to visit Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to inspect sites in order to suggest which ones would be fit for DEWATS and which ones for improved septic tanks and soak pits.

  • Since the CMC could not be present for the visit, the CDD team will present to the CMC engineering team when they are in Cuttack.

  • The Executive Engineer suggested that all the DEWATS sites should be part of a single tender package. This would help in selecting a contractor who would be capable of constructing DEWATS systems.

 

This was a very informative and productive trip to Nagpur. It is very exciting to think about these new and innovative technologies being implemented in the Project Sammaan facilities, even if it might be only in a small portion of them.

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